Clues sought in rape case

A woman was raped by a man lurking in Washington Park Sunday morning, police said. It was the second sexual assault in the city that morning. The first attack occurred on a nearby street in Pine Hills, police said.

The victims gave similar descriptions of their attackers, but police are not certain whether the assaults were committed by the same suspect. Both attacks occurred within a span of 75 minutes, said Officer James Miller.

Police were called to Albany Memorial Hospital after doctors contacted police to say a 25-year-old woman there said that she had been sexually assaulted in the park, Miller said.

The victim said she had been walking home with a friend at 3:30 a.m., but the pair split up when they got to the park. The victim kept walking through the park alone when a man came at her from behind and pushed her to the ground, Miller said.

The suspect pressed something against his victim’s head and threatened her, Miller said. The man raped the woman and said he would to kill her if she moved while he ran away, Miller said.

Police are not sure whether the suspect actually had a gun.

The woman told police she last saw her alleged attacker running west toward New Scotland Avenue. She described him as a 5-foot-7 black man wearing black baggy sweatpants and a dark hooded sweatshirt.

A 21-year-old woman who was assaulted in the first attack said the man who attacked her around 2:15 a.m. was also a 5-foot-7 black man with a small build wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, Miller said.

The victim was walking with two friends on Hamilton Street, near the intersection with Quail Street, when a man snuck out from behind a fence, walked up the victim, stuck his hand up her skirt and ran off, Miller said.

The victim said she and her friends last saw the suspect running west on Hamilton Street toward Ontario Street.

Miller said police are looking at whether Sunday’s attacks may have been committed by the same suspect who sexually assaulted one women and attempted to attack another last summer.

The attempted sexual assault occurred on Yates Street, where a woman fought the man off. The other alleged assault was on Lancaster Street.